User blog comment:Bartholomew Billberry Bowstring/Mossflower Country & Beyond/@comment-3135907-20110803165750

As the remnant ravens, crows, jackdaws, and magpies wait for Strongwing's fighters to arrive, something else is happening nearby. In the expanse of sand 'twixt groves and woodland fringe, the troops are still silently advancing. Finall y they all stand up as before but this time only fire off a few volleys of arrows without fire. Strongwing sees the arrows coming and ducks down behind an especially leafy tree branch. The thirty five black birds under Wroc Caw quickly follow such tactics to escape being slain by arrows. Then the forest edge is pelted with stones. Through all this only one old magpie who was to slow on his claws perished, because they were organized this time. Strongwing nods his beak at the eighty beasts attacking the woods with their projectiles. "We must stay here until my army arrives to destroy the earthcrawlers," he says to Wroc and Bazir. "If we can manage until then, my six score brethren shall slay these children of earthworms. My brethren are strong and mighty, and they shall bring glory to ye."